February - Hang Gliding Federation of Australia

H G F APara-Kiwi in PakistanRobert van den Ham, reprinted from Airborn NZ magazineIn September 2007 I was all set to go to Pakistan, I thought.The previous year, whilst in Bir in the north of India, I hadmade contact with some people that had been to Pakistanand their stories about big mountains made me want tohave a look for myself.Unfortunately my passport was lost bythe courier on the return trip fromthe Pakistani consulate and whenI got a new one sorted, I got an eyeinfection just prior to my departure.Pakistan was not to be that year. Too bad,since the guys I was going to meet therehad a ball, had amazing flights and brokeall kinds of records.Fast forward two years through somemore visa requirements, this time tobecome a permanent resident, and somemoney making exercises and we get to2010. Pakistan is not known for its safetyand stability. Whenever it is in the newsthere are bombs exploding in the capitaland the western frontier where al-Qaedaor one of the many other fighting groupswreak havoc. The south-west of thecountry has no law enforcement at alland the big metropolis of Karachi holdsdaily religious killings. However, thecountry is big and it is easy to avoid thosehotspots, more so as the areas of interestare far away from the unrest.Before I started organising my trip,I had my reservations about the sanity ofthe idea and asked Pakistan veteran BradSanders for his advice. He sort of put mymind at ease by saying how wonderfulthe people are and telling me about hisown experiences.The picture of Pakistan we get dishedup through the western media is highlyexaggerated and doesn’t do it justice.Don’t get me wrong, the violence is realand the government is the most corruptin the world. However, as a tourist with abit of commonsense, you can have a mostenlightening experience revealing a verydifferent Pakistan, not to mention theamazing flying.Ridge soaring Hunza at 6000mRob in the airI spent days online to get as muchinformation as possible, looking at tracklogs from people who had been there,GPS coordinates of important points inthe landscape, transport, accommodation,local contacts, airline tickets; the listwent on and on. I spent hours on GoogleEarth to study the lay of the land andthe possible routes. It was all part ofthe fun though and if I got frustratedwith something I found myself going toYouTube to watch some of the awesomevideo footage of flying in the Himalayas.Although I usually prefer to travel bymyself, I felt that this trip warranted theinconvenience of a travel companion toshare the load, a load in the literal senseof the word as we were travelling witha lot of gear. Grey Hamilton turned outto be the almost perfect candidate; hedoesn’t snore, his farts smell as bad asmine, he is always upbeat and he canput up with my bad sense of humour.With the original date of departureset for the beginning of May, we soon ranout of time. Grey wanted to buy a housebefore leaving and I had some difficultygetting my oxygen system from theUS. Getting the visa for Pakistan wasn’tstraightforward either, with more thana few emails and phone calls needed tosatisfy the authorities. In the end Greygot his house and his visa a week beforedeparture and I got my oxygen systemthe day before departure which had beenrescheduled for 25 May.Our plan was to spend two months inPakistan, then travel overland to India toshelter from the monsoon in the far northand end up in Nepal in October to dosome tandem work in Pokhara. It meantthat we had far more luggage than the30kg allowed on our Emirates flight andended up sending 30kg by airfreight.The day of our departure it rained catsand dogs and it felt good to leave theapproaching winter behind.We had a 16-hour layover in Dubai,with hotel and food paid for by theairline, so we had the time to go intothe city and see the outrageous use ofsteel, glass and concrete to build themost extravagant structures. The money,energy and materials wasted on creatinga totally artificial living environmentis concerning and makes a joke of ourefforts to save energy. However, it is thereand interesting to look at and; we flewRob getting all his gear onH G F Athere in a gas guzzling jet so I should justlet it go.We arrived in Islamabad at threein the morning so we hung out at theairport till daylight. Then we droppedour stuff at the hotel and went in searchof our local contact who runs a travelagency and is the president of thePakistani Association for Free Flight. Thereception was amazing. Everything wasorganised for us. In one day we had ourextra luggage cleared from the airport,tickets for our onward flight, sim cardsfor our mobiles, our money exchangedand we got to meet lots of local pilots atan evening BBQ. The next day our flightgot cancelled so we ended up taking thebus, which was organised for us as well.Our first destination lay in the northwestof Pakistan in the province ofChitral, a one-hour flight from Islamabador as we did it, a gruelling 17-hour busride. Once there, we installed ourselves ina little hotel where we would stay for thenext 30 days. Our local contact; Farhad,son of the former king of Chitral and apilot himself, visited us in the evening andfilled us in on the local dos and don’ts.The take-off is a 40-minute drive towhat once was the summer residence ofthe royals. The grassy slopes around theremnants of the summer palace lay at1600m above the valley floor which runsnorth-south. To the north-west the view isdominated by the bulk of the 7708m highTirich Mir, a complex ensemble of peaksand glaciers. The main valley runs furthernorth to Booni and Mastuj, where themain road veers of to the east.Our first morning was spent puttingour flying kit together and Farhad helpedus find a place to fill our oxygen bottles.The day was flyable so in the afternoonwe went for our first flight.With the take-off at 2700m and cloudbaseat over 5500m, the pre-flight preparationsare a bit different than for a flightin NZ. Although the temperature on takeoffis a balmy 25ºC, we have to dress fortemperatures below freezing. By the timeI’d put on my long johns, fleece pants,pants, flight suit, two down jackets,balaclava and wind stopper gloves Iwas dripping with sweat. It took a fewflights to get into the right routine to geteverything on and hooked up in the rightorder. When acclimatised properly, youwon’t really need extra oxygen till youreach 6000m, but I found it gives instantrelief for cold hands and feet when youturn it on.Our first flight was about three hourslong and took us up to 5500m. At thataltitude the horizon is a long way awayand left us with a vista of mountains aftermountains after mountains. Tirich Mirlooked only a glide away, although thedistance is about 40km. 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